This paper analyses the relationship between locus of control (LOC) and the demand for supplementary health insurance. Drawing on longitudinal data from Germany, we find robust evidence that individuals having an internal LOC are more likely to take up supplementary private health insurance (SUPP). The increase in the probability to have a SUPP due to one standard deviation increase in the measure ...
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the introduction of mandatory face mask usage triggered a heated debate. A major point of debate is whether community use of masks creates a false sense of security that would diminish physical distancing, counteracting any potential direct benefit from masking. We conducted a randomized field experiment in Berlin, Germany, to investigate how masks affect distancing and ...
Preterm birth research is poised to explore the mental health of adults born very preterm(VP;
Human antibiotic consumption is considered the main driver of antibiotic resistance. Reducing human antibiotic consumption without compromising health care quality poses one of the most important global health policy challenges. A crucial condition for designing effective policies is to identify who drives antibiotic treatment decisions, physicians or patient demand. We measure the causal effect of ...
How many people have already been infected with the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2? How many infections have gone undetected? The German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) and the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) are investigating these questions in the nationwide study “Living in Germany—Corona Monitoring”. DIW Berlin has commissioned Kantar to carry out the survey.
Against a background of increasing violence against non-natives, we estimate the effect of hate crime on refugees’ mental health in Germany. For this purpose, we combine two datasets: administrative records on xenophobic crime against refugee shelters by the Federal Criminal Office and the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees. We apply a regression discontinuity design in time to estimate the effect of ...
The study protocol of the CORONA-MONITORING nationwide study (RKI-SOEP study) has been published in the Journal of Health Monitoring and is freely available.In the study, which was conducted in a collaboration between the Robert Koch Institute and the Socio-Economic Panel at DIW Berlin, SOEP respondents were sent self-tests in the form of PCR and DBS tests to be sent to the RKI for analysis. In addition, ...
This study explores the relationship between the adoption of industrial robots and workplace injuries using data from the United States (US) and Germany. Our empirical analyses, based on establishment-level data for the US, suggest that a one standard deviation increase in robot exposure reduces work-related injuries by approximately 16%. These results are driven by manufacturing firms (–28%), while ...